Born in Malone, New York, Mould lived in several places, including Pine City, Minnesota and the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where he attended Macalester College. There, he formed Hüsker Dü in the late 1970s, with drummer/singer Grant Hart and bass guitarist Greg Norton.
Mould released his first solo album after Hüsker Dü broke up; 1989's Workbook eschewed Mould's trademark wall-of-noise guitar for a stripped-down sound featuring acoustic guitars and cellos. 1991's jagged Black Sheets of Rain put Mould in more familiar territory, recalling Hüsker Dü's loudest, angriest moments. Mould also started a record label, Singles Only Label, which released singles from up and coming bands such as Grant Lee Buffalo.
Mould then formed the group Sugar, a college/alternative radio favorite in the mid-1990s. Along with extensive touring, Sugar released two albums, an EP and a B-sides collection before splitting.
Mould returned to solo recording, releasing a self-titled album in 1996 (which is often referred to as Hubcap because of the cover photo) and 1998's The Last Dog and Pony Show. During a stint living in New York City in the late-1990s, Mould's tastes took a detour into dance music and electronica. Those influences were clear on his 2002 release Modulate, which featured a strong electronica influence to mixed critical reviews. To pursue this sound, Mould also began recording under the pseudonym LoudBomb (an anagram of his name). He has released one CD so far under this name.
Mould took a brief break from the music world to get involved with another passion of his, professional wrestling, when he joined WCW as a scriptwriter for a brief period. Creative differences with some of the other writers of the league led to Mould leaving the company and returning to music. The liner notes for Modulate thank some of the wrestlers he associated with, most notably Kevin Nash and Kevin Sullivan.
In addition to his solo work, Mould is also a live DJ in collaboration with Washington DC-area dance music artist Richard Morel, under the collective banner Blowoff. A recording under that banner was released in September 2006. Mould has been asked to do remixes for a variety of dance and alternative rock artists. A recent remix of the Interpol song "Length Of Love" has led to more critical acclaim for the veteran artist.
For much of the 1990s, Mould toured playing solo acoustic renditions of his catalog (occasionally switching to electric guitar midway through his set). In 2005 his solo album Body of Song was cross-announced with his first band tour since 1998. Brendan Canty, best known as the drummer for Fugazi, and Mould's Blowoff collaborator, Morel, played drums and keyboards, respectively, for the 2005 tour. Mould's latest album, District Line, was released in February 2008.
Though his homosexuality was previously something of an open secret, Mould was outed in the early 1990s; he is now openly gay. Though it was often rumored during his Hüsker Dü days that he and bandmate Hart were an item (Hart was also gay, and both acknowledge taking partners on tour), both have flatly denied ever having been romantically involved.
In 2006, Mould contributed the song "If I Can't Change Your Mind" to the album Wed-Rock, an album to promote same-sex marriage.
On September 29, 2005, Mould's song "Circles" was featured on The OC as Marissa Cooper was starting her first day at her public school in Season 3. Mould's song "Dog on Fire" is the theme song for The Daily Show. They Might Be Giants perform the current version. The song "See a Little Light" has been used more than once in various television applications: It was used in the closing scene of the original un-aired test pilot episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, it became one of the principal theme songs for the HBO series The Mind of the Married Man and was also used in a television commercial for TIAA-CREF (August 2007). Mould also composed the theme for the TLC program, In a Fix.
Mould and director Cameron Crowe are close friends; the character Bob Sugar (played by Jay Mohr) in Crowe's 1996 film Jerry Maguire is named for both Mould and his former band, Sugar.
Mould appeared on an episode of IFC's The Henry Rollins Show on June 15, 2007.
Mould also played lead guitar in the house band for the film of John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Mould also participated in a Hedwig tribute album, Wig in a Box, on which he covered the song "Nailed."
Solo Discography
Workbook LP (Virgin, 1989)
See A Little Light Single (Virgin, 1989)
Wishing Well + 4 Tracks Single (Virgin, 1989)
Black Sheets of Rain LP (Virgin, 1990)
Poison Years Compilation LP (Virgin, 1994)
Egøverride Single (Rykodisc, 1995)
Bob Mould LP (Rykodisc, 1996)
The Last Dog and Pony Show LP (Rykodisc, 1998)
Modulate LP (Granary Music, 2002)
Live Dog 98: The Forum, London UK Live LP (Granary Music, 2002)
Long Playing Grooves (released under anagram LoudBomb) LP (Granary Music, 2002)
Body of Song (Yep Roc, 2005)
District Line (Granary Music, 2008)
Silver Age (Edsel 2012)
Beauty & Ruin (Merge Records, 2014)
Patch the Sky (Merge Records, 2016)
Sunshine Rock (Merge Records, 2019)
Bootlegs
The Calm Before the Storm (Kiss The Stone, 1994)
Bands Produced
Soul Asylum, Made To Be Broken LP
Articles of Faith, Give Thanks and In this Life LPs
Magnapop, Hot Boxing LP
Verbow, Chronicles LP
The Zulus, Down on the Floor LP
Impaler, If We Had Brains... We'd Be Dangerous LP
Low, Tonight the Monkeys Die Remixes EP
http://www.bobmould.com
http://modulate.blogspot.com
Voices In My Head
Bob Mould Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Strange hallucinations I avoid
The people and the places, the living and the dead
Can I find some truth within the noise?
It gets cold and it gets lonely
Gets you down inside
When it's evening and I wander off
Now I'm very conscious of the voices in my head
They multiply and amplify the fear
I can play the victim or get on with life instead
By finding resolution as they clear
We've had our final conversation
I remember that
Understand me: it's a long way back
If I decide to listen
No more time to listen to the voices in my head
Say goodbye, time to say farewell
To all the ghosts and demons and all the words they said
I decide to listen to myself
The lyrics in "Voices In My Head" by Bob Mould seem to be about the internal battle of dealing with personal demons and fears. The opening line suggests that the singer is in a state of confusion and seeks comfort in the voices in his head, which could be seen as self-sabotaging tendencies. He tries to avoid hallucinations, and navigate through past experiences and people, some of whom are alive, and some others, who are dead. The struggle to find a sense of truth in this all could imply the difficulty in separating reality from self-perception.
The song also touches on loneliness, and how this can feed into the turmoil within one's mind, cutting you down from the inside, causing you to wander off and feel perpetually lost. The chorus illustrates the internal struggle, in which the singer acknowledges the voices as amplifiers of fear but also as a source of comfort, depending on how he approaches them. He can either choose to be consumed by them, or he can use them as a tool for growth, finding resolution as they clear. The latter option signifies the singer taking control of his fears.
The chorus then changes slightly, hinting at a resolution of sorts, asking for all the ghosts, demons, and words they spoke to say goodbye, as the singer decides to listen to himself. The final words suggest that the singer has found a new level of self-awareness and that he no longer needs to depend on the opinions of others or let his fears control him.
Line by Line Meaning
I decide to listen to the voices in my head
The singer chooses to hear the thoughts in his head.
Strange hallucinations I avoid
He ignores weird illusions he sometimes has.
The people and the places, the living and the dead
Both the living and the dead people and surroundings shape his thoughts.
Can I find some truth within the noise?
He wonders if he can uncover any genuine messages among the chaos.
It gets cold and it gets lonely
Embracing your inner thoughts and shutting the outside world can be a lonely and painful process.
Gets you down inside
It can also be emotionally taxing and draining.
When it's evening and I wander off
The singer loses himself in his thoughts, especially at night.
It's a long dark ride
He finds this self-reflective journey to be a trying and difficult road.
Now I'm very conscious of the voices in my head
He's acutely aware of the sounds inside his own mind.
They multiply and amplify the fear
The more he listens to them, the more they magnify his worries and troubles.
I can play the victim or get on with life instead
He can let his concerns control him or learn to move on and take control of his thoughts.
By finding resolution as they clear
He knows inner peace can be found by confronting and resolving the issues swirling in his mind.
We've had our final conversation
He's finished listening to these voices.
I remember that
But he hasn't forgotten the experiences that brought him here.
Understand me: it's a long way back
He realizes that reversing his course from this internal pilgrimage won't be easy.
No more time to listen to the voices in my head
He's giving up listening solely to his inner thoughts and must move forward.
Say goodbye, time to say farewell
It's time to bid farewell to his old way of thinking.
To all the ghosts and demons and all the words they said
He's banishing every negative voice in his mind.
I decide to listen to myself
Going forward, he chooses to listen and take control of his own voice and thoughts.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Bob Mould
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Justin Torrento
Thank god for Bob Mould. Not a whole lot of people making killer rock tunes these days.
Sean McDowell
Ain't that the truth?
Chuck O'Connor
Thank you Bob for continuing to help me end my shame cycle - your art is healing.
Christopher Bishop
That intro... you can't help but air-guitar it after you understand it.
Henry Drake
I really started parting ways with Bob around Hubcap. There were moments and I always listened but it just wasn't there for me. He's killed it on the last two albums though and this is a great track. I'm not sure what makes a man find suddenly reconnect with his muse in his 50s but holy shit Bob....KEEP IT UP!!!
Anselmo Echeverria
Hay tipos que hace tiempo deberían tener un monumento por su aportación al mundo de la música. Bob Mould, sin duda, él fue uno de los precursores del sonido punk americano a cargo de Hüsker Dü y su posterior transformación en Sugar también trajo frenéticas sensaciones. El prolífico Bob presenta ahora su decimosegundo trabajo en solitario. "Patch The Sky", una obra que viene marcada por el fallecimiento de su madre y el fin de una relación sentimental. Así que es un disco oscuro, pero también feroz, que ha usado para expulsar sus demonios, el sentimiento de pérdida y la soledad. A sus cincuenta y cinco años de edad, nos habla sobre la necesidad de seguir a flote, de que la vida es muchas veces injusta, pero es lo que tenemos. En el fondo es un canto a la vida, al dolor y a lo que ello conlleva. Todo ello con un rock’n’roll musculoso y energía eléctrica. "Hold on"‘Lucifer and God", "The edge of things", "Voices in my head" o "You say you" son ejemplos de esa contundencia, la de un álbum acelerado, muy potente.
“Patch The Sky” es el fin de una trilogía marcada por el fichaje con el sello Merge, con quien editó “Silver Age” (2012), “Beauty & Ruin” (2014) siempre en formato trio con Jason Narducy y Jon Wurster, que ha funcionado a la perfección, sin florituras, pero con absoluta eficacia. Bob Mould sigue en plena forma con grandes destellos. Sin duda, un artista que merece un inmenso respeto.
Música independiente novedades.
Ryan Thomas
Sounds like a cross between Workbook and Copper Blue. Bob's the man!
Matt MacNeil
Bob Mould, Jason Narducy, and Jon Wurster are like the best trio.
tinfoilhatter
they sound sugary enough, by gosh! they'll *do*!
tinfoilhatter
MOULD ROULZ!